Horowitz Travel-Israel-Jerusalem- Shabbat
#2-January 20, 2017
The inauguration of Trump will begin 6:00 PM, Israeli time. That's about when our dinner guest, Lauren Werber, will arrive. I doubt we'll watch it live. Shabbat is about peace, not stress. We'll talk, eat, and eat some more.
We walked the now familiar route on Emek Refaim to what I've begun to think of as the Shabbat dinner store (only open Thurs. & Fri) It reminded me of being in a soup kitchen. The line was out the door. The one aisle was too narrow for two adults to pass without one turning sideways. Fortunately, the foods were labeled in English & Hebrew. Containers & lids were provided. We left our rolling shopping cart on the sidewalk as everyone does & dove in. We wanted to try one of everything: to the best of my recollection we got: Moroccan cigars, kebab, egg roll, green beans, potatoes, meatballs, stuffed eggplant, roast chicken (leg & thigh, stuffed breast, & boneless breasts), challah. I didn't mention what we didn't buy. David kept saying, "Get more. There are three people to feed." I think we two will have enough left until next Shabbat. At another store, we got plain & pistachio halvah (a sweet, dense loaf made from sesame paste). Now all we have to do is figure out the oven in centigrade & decide if we want to use the convention setting. We also have to avoid activating the cleaning cycle or we’ll be eating charcoal.
Ironically, there's a store that we can only find when we walk in one direction. It's inset & the display is one-sided. We marked where it was by the store across the street. In looking for it, we saw that the gate to the Alliance Church International Cemetery was open. It's a park-like setting, & we were curious. There was a group gathered at a grave taking pictures of each other. We asked if we could take a group photo. They were at the grave of a Chinese man who died in 2003 and had been their tai chi teacher for fifty years. His daughter, who had been raised in Israel, was visiting on a college trip. They'd known her since she was a baby. Some of the people were from South Africa, & most all spoke English. We compared tai chi styles & one woman said she could play the music their sifu (teacher) did when he was alive. I was shocked to hear it was the same as my sifu plays in my class in Akron. As were left, one woman confided to me that the deceased had not really been a Christian. He died in hospice of leukemia. Some missionaries converted him without asking, but he didn't seem to mind.
At the far end of the cemetery was a mural depicting Jews coming to Jesus. Most tomb stones had Hebrew, English, Greek, Asian, or Arabic inscriptions. Those not born Christian had to have converted to Christianity to be buried there, even a rabbi. It's traditional to place a pebble or small stone on the grave at a Jewish cemetery. But, in Israel, the custom doesn't translate to a Christian cemetery.
We lunched at the Waffle Factory which was short on waffle options, but our food was photogenic. The sides were served on a large painter's pallet: fried halloumi & cream cheese balls, sweet potato chips, guacamole, cottage cheese, baba ghanoush, tuna salad, olive tapenade, feta. It came with a small salad, rolls, & two eggs.
I was interested in two articles in the paper this morning. One is about abortion in Israel. They view us as backward & even mentioned doctors who had been murdered for doing abortions in the U.S. Israeli law states that an abortion will only be given if the woman is under 17 or over 40 years old; if she's single or if the fetus was conceived outside her marriage; if the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape; if the fetus is likely to have mental or physical disabilities; or if the pregnancy is likely to put the woman's life at risk. She has to appear before a committee with medical & social work professionals. Ninety-nine per cent of requests are granted. Some women who don't fall into those categories lie to get an abortion. The consequences can cause problems in the future. If they say they had an extra-marital affair or fake a letter from a psychiatrist regarding mental health & later seek a divorce, it's a black mark against them. The other part of the right to choose issue is that birth control & education is available for those who want.
The second article was about women waging peace to put a political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is composed of Israeli-Jews, Israeli-Arabs, Palestinian, Druse, Bedouin, Muslim, & Christian women. In the beginning (2014) they were mostly mothers of soldiers, but membership has spread. They were inspired by Liberia & Northern Ireland, two examples of women taking initiative to put pressure on their governments for peace. Meanwhile, soldiers armed with Uzis casually shop & stroll the streets, & we saw a father & young son eating in a restaurant with the handle of a gun clearly visible under the dad's jacket.
As poly-cultural as Israel is, it maintains its identity as singularly Jewish. There's no mistake when it's Shabbat; even Christian cemeteries have Hebrew inscriptions; most people speak Hebrew no matter their ethnic identification. It doesn't seem to want to be a melting pot. It's a hodge-podge, a tossed salad, its own unique chaotic tumult, but Jewish.
Tomorrow we're getting a personally guided auto tour by Terry, then we're going to Stuart 's 75th birthday party.
Toby
The inauguration of Trump will begin 6:00 PM, Israeli time. That's about when our dinner guest, Lauren Werber, will arrive. I doubt we'll watch it live. Shabbat is about peace, not stress. We'll talk, eat, and eat some more.
We walked the now familiar route on Emek Refaim to what I've begun to think of as the Shabbat dinner store (only open Thurs. & Fri) It reminded me of being in a soup kitchen. The line was out the door. The one aisle was too narrow for two adults to pass without one turning sideways. Fortunately, the foods were labeled in English & Hebrew. Containers & lids were provided. We left our rolling shopping cart on the sidewalk as everyone does & dove in. We wanted to try one of everything: to the best of my recollection we got: Moroccan cigars, kebab, egg roll, green beans, potatoes, meatballs, stuffed eggplant, roast chicken (leg & thigh, stuffed breast, & boneless breasts), challah. I didn't mention what we didn't buy. David kept saying, "Get more. There are three people to feed." I think we two will have enough left until next Shabbat. At another store, we got plain & pistachio halvah (a sweet, dense loaf made from sesame paste). Now all we have to do is figure out the oven in centigrade & decide if we want to use the convention setting. We also have to avoid activating the cleaning cycle or we’ll be eating charcoal.
Ironically, there's a store that we can only find when we walk in one direction. It's inset & the display is one-sided. We marked where it was by the store across the street. In looking for it, we saw that the gate to the Alliance Church International Cemetery was open. It's a park-like setting, & we were curious. There was a group gathered at a grave taking pictures of each other. We asked if we could take a group photo. They were at the grave of a Chinese man who died in 2003 and had been their tai chi teacher for fifty years. His daughter, who had been raised in Israel, was visiting on a college trip. They'd known her since she was a baby. Some of the people were from South Africa, & most all spoke English. We compared tai chi styles & one woman said she could play the music their sifu (teacher) did when he was alive. I was shocked to hear it was the same as my sifu plays in my class in Akron. As were left, one woman confided to me that the deceased had not really been a Christian. He died in hospice of leukemia. Some missionaries converted him without asking, but he didn't seem to mind.
At the far end of the cemetery was a mural depicting Jews coming to Jesus. Most tomb stones had Hebrew, English, Greek, Asian, or Arabic inscriptions. Those not born Christian had to have converted to Christianity to be buried there, even a rabbi. It's traditional to place a pebble or small stone on the grave at a Jewish cemetery. But, in Israel, the custom doesn't translate to a Christian cemetery.
We lunched at the Waffle Factory which was short on waffle options, but our food was photogenic. The sides were served on a large painter's pallet: fried halloumi & cream cheese balls, sweet potato chips, guacamole, cottage cheese, baba ghanoush, tuna salad, olive tapenade, feta. It came with a small salad, rolls, & two eggs.
I was interested in two articles in the paper this morning. One is about abortion in Israel. They view us as backward & even mentioned doctors who had been murdered for doing abortions in the U.S. Israeli law states that an abortion will only be given if the woman is under 17 or over 40 years old; if she's single or if the fetus was conceived outside her marriage; if the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape; if the fetus is likely to have mental or physical disabilities; or if the pregnancy is likely to put the woman's life at risk. She has to appear before a committee with medical & social work professionals. Ninety-nine per cent of requests are granted. Some women who don't fall into those categories lie to get an abortion. The consequences can cause problems in the future. If they say they had an extra-marital affair or fake a letter from a psychiatrist regarding mental health & later seek a divorce, it's a black mark against them. The other part of the right to choose issue is that birth control & education is available for those who want.
The second article was about women waging peace to put a political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is composed of Israeli-Jews, Israeli-Arabs, Palestinian, Druse, Bedouin, Muslim, & Christian women. In the beginning (2014) they were mostly mothers of soldiers, but membership has spread. They were inspired by Liberia & Northern Ireland, two examples of women taking initiative to put pressure on their governments for peace. Meanwhile, soldiers armed with Uzis casually shop & stroll the streets, & we saw a father & young son eating in a restaurant with the handle of a gun clearly visible under the dad's jacket.
As poly-cultural as Israel is, it maintains its identity as singularly Jewish. There's no mistake when it's Shabbat; even Christian cemeteries have Hebrew inscriptions; most people speak Hebrew no matter their ethnic identification. It doesn't seem to want to be a melting pot. It's a hodge-podge, a tossed salad, its own unique chaotic tumult, but Jewish.
Tomorrow we're getting a personally guided auto tour by Terry, then we're going to Stuart 's 75th birthday party.
Toby
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| Breakfast |
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| Dad packing at dinner with son |
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